


Helmets

by jordynmikey_lander



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: F/M, Major Character Injury
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-11
Updated: 2018-09-11
Packaged: 2019-07-10 21:27:00
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,448
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15957875
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jordynmikey_lander/pseuds/jordynmikey_lander
Summary: Hope Jones has some trouble listening to her parents. What happens when things go wrong while shes riding her bike?





	Helmets

Killian and Emma had spent days trying to get their little girl to start riding a two wheeled bike. She was so stubborn and refused for the longest time, because she was terrified of what would happen if she were to fall. 

“Daddy I don't want to!” she whined, yet again, after Killian had suggested they go out to learn  
“Why not? Don't you think it's about time that you learned a new skill little love?” came his reply  
“No! Because what happens if I fall? I'll get hurt really bad and have to go see the doctor and he'll give me shots and-”  
“Honey nobody is going to let you get hurt.” her mother replied, squatting down next to her kid. “and besides, you'll be super protected by the elbow pads, knee pads, and the helmet. As long as you always wear a helmet, you'll be safe”  
“Mommy i'm scared”  
“I know you are sweetheart, but daddy and I are here, and we wont let anything happen to you”

Hope had put up so much a fight, and now, as he sat on the front porch watching his six year old daughter ride her bike, he couldn't help the swelling of pride in his chest. She was so much like her mother, Strong willed, brave, and she had a fierce love for her family. Seeing Emma and Hope together had made him the happiest man in the world. They had given him what he always wanted, a family. Killian couldn't have been any happier in this moment than he already was.

“Whatcha thinkin about Captain?” Came Emma's voice from the front door.  
“My family. As always. Are you done with your paperwork? Can you finally come an join us?”  
“of course. Has she fallen at all?” Emma asked, pointing to her child  
“only once but she managed to turn the bike so that she was in the grass before she fell.”  
“Well that's good. I'm glad shes finally getting the hang of it.”  
“Me too love.” killian said with a smile. He looked back to their daughter and watched her go up and down the street on her “big girl bike” as she always said. 

About an hour later, Emma called Hope inside to wash up for lunch.  
“Hope! It's time for lunch baby. You need to come wash up”  
“Ok mommy! I'll be there in a second.” She parked her bike in the grass and ran up the steps and into her mothers arms. “thank you for teaching me to ride my bike mommy. It's a lot of fun” Emma took of her daughters helmet and replied with a kiss to the top of her head and a small youre welcome. 

A week later Hope asked her parents if she could go out and play. Normally, one or both parents would acompany her but today both of them were up to their necks in paperwork from the sherrifs station. They trusted their town enough to know that the streets were safe enough for their child to play by herself. Hope kissed her mom and dad on the cheek and ran to the door. With a yell of “wear your helmet” from her dad and a smile from her mom, she was out the door. 

Some time later, Emma and Killian decided to take a break from their work and head outside from some much needed air. They stepped onto the front porch and set their sights on their daughter. She was not wearing her helmet on her bike and her father was furious.   
“Hope Elizabeth Jones!” he yelled to her. The small girl wasn't aware that her parents were outside and she was startled at her dads sudden appearance. Hope looked at her dad a second too long and started to loosed control of the bike. She tried in vain to right herself, but as she looked up in terror, she saw the giant tree that was in her front yard only a second too late. The six year old hopped the curb and crashed into the tree. She yelled as she fell backwards off the bike and landed head first on the curb. All was quiet as she laid there slowly loosing conciousness.  
Emma and Killian watched in horror as their child crashed her bike into a tree and fell to the ground. The world moved in slow motion as Hope's head hit the curb with a deafening crack and she lay motionless on the front lawn. The parents looked at each other for a second before they took off to help their daughter. Emma reached her first and inspected her head, as Killian reached for his baby's hand. At first she looked fine but as she stared, she noticed the small amount of red, slowly sneaking into the street.   
“Killian shes bleeding! What do we do?!” Emma said with a voice that was full of panic and sorrow.   
“I'll be right back love. I'm going to get my phone and call for an ambulance. Don't move her Emma. I'll- I'll be right back.” He ran back into the house to retrieve his phone that was sitting on the table. Emma sat on the grass holding her daughter's tiny hand in her own. As she waited for her husband to return, she silently prayed to whatever God she could, that her daughter would be ok. Killian ran back out of the house and jumped down the flight of stairs that was separating him from his girls. As he ran, he dialed 911.  
“911 what's your emergency?” the operator asked.  
“It's my daughter, she was riding her bike and she crashed into a tree and fell. She wasn't wearing her helmet and she cracked her head on the curb.” Killian said frantically  
“Ok sir. Wha'ts your address?”  
“125 south misthaven road.”  
“and what are your names?”  
“Killian Jones and my daughter is Hope Jones”  
“thank you. Now is your daughter breathing?” Killian knelt down and listened for Hoped ragged breaths.  
“yes! She's breathing. But theres blood. I don't know where its coming from. I think it's her head. She's unconcious!” he glanced at Emma and his heart broke. She was holding Hope's hand as silent sobs wracked her body. He knew she was trying to be strong for Hope, but they had both been through so much and worked so hard for the family that they had and they both couldnt' help but think that this was it. They were going to loose their little girl.  
“sir? Mr. Jones? Are you still there?” the operator interrupted Killian's train of thought  
“what? Yes i'm still here.”  
“ok, the ambulance will be there in two minutes. But I need you to stay on the line. Tell me, is she moving at all?”  
“no shes laying still. And shes loosing her color.”  
“is she still breathing?” Again Killian checked to make sure that she was.  
“Barely. Oh my god! Emma! Shes barely breathing!”   
“Mr. Jones? Sir. I need you to stay with me. I need you to check her pulse.”  
“o-ok.” Killian stiffled a sob as he put two fingers to Hope's pulse point. “ It's weak but there's a pulse”  
“Thats good Mr. Jones. The ambulance should be there in less than a minute” Before Killian got a chance to reply, Hope started to shake.   
“Killian!” emma shouted. “Killian help her!”  
“What's going on Mr. Jones? Tell me what's happening with Hope?”  
“she's shaking!” at that moment, the ambulance showed up. Sirens wailing and light shining so bright Killian had to look away.   
“Is that the ambulance Mr. Jones?”  
“Yeah. It's here.”  
“Ok then i'm going to hang up with you and let you talk to the paramedics. The faster they can figure out what happened, the faster they can help her.”  
“thank you so much. Thank you.” with that, he hung up the phone and turned to the paramedics that were emerging from the back of the van. Killian knelt down next to Emma and grabbed her hand. And gently pulled it away from Hope's so that the paramedics could do what they needed to do. The older Jones woman slowly stood up with help from her husband. She turned into him and buried her face in his chest. Killian could hear his wife sniffling and crying into his shirt. He leaned his head down and tried to console Emma by telling her it was going to be ok but she just shook her head.   
One of the paramedics walked up to Killian and Emma and started asking questions about what happened.   
“I called her name because I was angry that she didn't listen to me and she looked away from the sidewalk. She crashed into the tree and fell off the bike...”  
“it's ok sir I know this is hard. We're going to put a brace on her and get her onto the stabalizing board. From what we can see, she cracked her head open when she hit the curb ” Emma continued to cry into Killian's shirt.  
“Emma it's ok love.”  
“Ma'am it's going to be ok. We'll get your daughter to the hospital and in the care of the doctors”   
Once they got Hope onto the gurnee and started to put her in the back of the ambulance one of the paramedics came over to the parents again  
“Who wants to ride along? We can only take one person.”  
“I'll go.” Emma spoke up.  
“Are you sure love?” Killian asked  
“yeah. You're a lot more calm than me. If I drive, i'll end up crashing the car.”  
“ok. Then i'll meet you at the hospital.”  
Killian watched as the paramedic helped Emma into the back and closed the door. As soon as she was in, he turned around and ran into the house to grab the keys to Emma's yellow bug. He also grabbed her phone and a change of clothes for both of them and ran out the door. On the way to the hospital he called Emma's parents who lived a couple blocks away.  
“Killian! Hi honey how are you?” Came his mother- in- laws cheery voice. Her cheerfulness made him want to weep because he knew that in a matter of seconds, that cheerfulness would be gone. As quietly as he could, he took a breath and prepared to tell his wife's parents that their grandchild is currently being rushed to the hospital.  
“Killian? Are you there?” Mary Margaret said with some worry.  
“Mom?” He had never once called his in-laws by anything other than their names but he was terrified and it just kind of slipped out. But Mary Margaret knew that something bad happened and she needed to figure out what.  
“what happened?” no reply. “Killian Jones, what happened?” That snapped him out of his trance.  
“I don't know! Emma and I let her play outside and I told her to wear her helmet! I told her! But she didn't listen. We came out about an hour later and she was riding her bike without the helmet. I yelled her full name and she stopped paying attention to what she was doing. It's my fault. It's all my fault” he could hear the quiet, harsh breaths on the other end of the phone. And then a male voice took over.  
“Killian you need to tell us what's going on. We can't help you if we don't know what happened.”  
“David, she lost control of the bike and crashed into the tree. She wasn't wearing her helmet and she cracked her head on the curb. We don't know how bad it is. But when she was loaded into the ambulance, her head was bleeding and she was shaking. I don't know if it was a seizure or she was cold or what but i'm scared.”  
“Ok. Ok. I know youre scared but you need to be strong here. Where's Emma?”  
“She went with Hope.”  
“Good. What hospital are they going to?”  
“SG” Killian replied. He could hear Emma's father tell Mary Margaret to get her coat because they were going to Storybrooke General.  
“We'll meet you there. Try to stay calm. Everything is going to be fine.” He heard the other line hang up.   
Shortly after he got off the phone with Emma's parents, he pulled into the emergency room parking lot at the hospital. He got out of the car as fast as he possible could and ran into the waiting room. Very quickly scanning to room he saw the familiar head of golden blonde curls that belonged to his wife.   
“Emma!” he said as he ran over to her and pulled her into his arms “what did they say? Is she going to be alright?” Emma sniffled and look up   
“They said that the crack in her skull was a lot worse than they thought.”  
“What does that mean?”  
“don't know. It could mean a lot of things but they won't tell us what until they figure out exactly whats wrong.” Killian let go of Emma and sunk down into a chair. He put his head in his hands and for the first time since this whole thing happened, he started to cry.  
“it's my fault. Emma this is all my fault.”  
“No it's not. It's not anybody's fault. It just happened.”  
“I shouldn't have called out to her like that. I scared her. That's why she hit the tree.”  
“And she should have payed more attention but that doesn't matter. What matters is that it did happen and now we have to wait to see if our daughter is going to survive this.” Emma said pulling Killian to her in an embrace that only happened in the early hours of the morning when Killian would have a nightmare and need her to lean on. Her arms were circling him around his chest and back and his head was turned in to her collarbone. After a few minutes of silence (with the exception of both Killian and Emma's sniffling and quiet sobs) He spoke. “What if she doesn't make it?” the question broke both of their hearts. Neither one of them wanted to think about what would happen if they lost their daughter.   
“ Killian?” he turned his head to the door and saw Mary Margaret and David standing there with what can only be described as pure heartbreak and sorrow in their eyes.   
“Mom? Dad?” Emma said from beside her husband. “What are you doing here?”  
Mary Margaret ran over to her daughter and son-in-law and wrapped them in a bone crushing embrace. “Killian called us. But that doesn't matter. We're here now. It's going to be ok baby.” her mother said kissing Emma's forehead. David came over soon after and joined in the hug too. “I knew there was a problem when Killian called me mom.” Mary Margaret said with a tiny chuckle.  
“You called her mom?”  
“I was scared and she's the closest thing ive had to a “mother” in about 25 years.”  
“Jones?” a nurse said walking into the waiting room. Emma and Killian immediately broke away from the group hug and ran over.  
“Is she ok? Oh please tell me she's ok.”  
“I'm sorry. She's not gone but there's a bigger issue than just a cracked head. She had some swelling in her brain due to the fall that had caused her to fall into a coma.” Emma backed up and covered her mouth, looking like she was going to be sick. She started to fall to her knees but Killian was quick to grab her and hold her steady. He had one hand on her back and the other on the back of her head, holding her to him. “We're going to run a lot more tests and she will have to go in for surgery probably later tonight but for now all her vitals are normal.”  
“What's the surgery for?” Killian asked.  
“We need to calm the swelling and drain some of the excess fluids so that we can see what exactly is causing it”  
“Can we see her?”  
“Yes. I must warn you though, she's very pale and we had to cut off most of her hair to have access to the wound.”  
“Thank you.”  
“I'll take you both to her.”  
“Can we wait a second? I need to fill her parents in” Killian said gesturing to Emma and then flicked his head towards the waiting room.  
“Of course. I'll wait here” Killian slowly lead Emma towards her parents, who, looked as if they sky had fallen. They looked at him with sorrow filled eyes and tear satained faces. There were no words how to describe how empty he felt.  
“Is she ok?” David asked, putting a hand on Emma's back. All Killian could do was shake his head and try not to break down completely. After a few seconds he took a big breath and repeated to them what the nurse said.   
“Oh my god!” Mary Margaret exclaimed.   
“I'm really sorry but we need to go see her.”  
“Don't be sorry. Go see your daughter.”   
Together Hope's parents followed the nurse to Hope's room. When they opened the door, Killian had to hold on to Emma because she was falling again. Their baby was laying in a too big hospital bed, hooked up to so many tubes and monitors. She looked to tiny to them. She was as pale as a ghost and her head was wrapped in a big white bandage. Slowly, they entered the room and the nurse closed the door behind them. Killian sat Emma down in a chair on one side of her bed and he took his position at the other side. The tears in his eyes splashed down on her face ad he kissed her bandage covered forehead.  
“Hope? Mommy and daddy are here baby. We're so sorry. We should have made sure you put your helmet on. Please wake up. We need you to wake up for us baby. Please?” Emma gasped out a sob and grabbed her daughter's hand.   
“Grandma and Grandpa are out in the waiting room. Theyre really worried about you little love. Come back to us honey. I promise that mom and I will give you whatever you want. We can have breakfast for dinner every day. You can have ice cream whenever. All you have to do, is wake up”

The Jones' continued to sit in Hope's room until the nurse came back in and said that it was time for her surgery. A team of people came in to wheel her out.   
“How long is the surgery?” Emma asked  
“Well it depends on what we find. It could go anywhere from 2 hours to 9 or 10 hours.”  
“Really?”  
“really. I know this is hard. We are doing everything we can to save your daughter. It looks good for now but again, it depends on what we find.”  
“Ok thank you. Will she come right back here?”  
“No she'll go to a recovery room for a few hours and then we'll move her back here.”  
Emma nodded her head once and stood to go to the lobby. Killian followed closely behind.  
“Emma stop.” he said, before reaching the lobby. When she didn't stop, he gently grabbed her hand and pulled her around to face him. “you need to talk. You've barely said anything since before we even got here. Please... talk to me love”   
She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. “I'm scared Killian. No scratch that, i'm more than scared. I'm absolutely terrified. What if we loose her? I've worked- we've worked- way to hard for this family that we have to loose it all now. My little girl. My baby. She's going into surgery so that hopefully they can calm the swelling in her brain. Why didn't we watch her? Why didn't we at least make sure that she did put on her helmet?” At this point, she had her hands wrapped in Killian's shirt like it was her lifeline. He reached up and cupped her face.   
“I can't assure you that everything is going to be fine. I can't tell you that she'll pull through. I can't tell you that we will see our little girl smile again. I can tell you however, that we will get through this together. We can get through this together. We just have to.” He gently kissed her forehead and pulled her in for a hug.   
“No matter what. I love you Killian.”  
“I love you too love.”

They walked into the lobby hand-in-hand. Both of them looked tired and sad.   
“How is she?” David asked, giving his daughter a hug.  
“She's in surgery now. They don't know how long she'll be. They have to stop the swelling and figure out where the problem is coming from.”  
“Oh no. How in the world could this have happened?” Mary Margaret asked  
“I don't know mom. Kil and I have been asking that question since it happened. She has never really disobeyed us and now she's here. I don't know if shes in pain or not. And I- I- I just I want my daughter back.” She leaned into Killian's side and put her head on his shoulder. He wrapped his arm around her and pulled her a little closer.   
“You guys should go home. It's probably going to be a while and there's no use in all of us being here. Plus, you need to get back to Neal.” Killian said, leading Emma and himself to the highly uncomfortable chairs.   
“It's ok. Neal is with the sitter. We don't want to leave you two here alone. I feel like my life is falling apart right now so I can't even begin to imagine how you both are feeling.”  
“Mom, we're fine. Just go home and get some sleep.”  
“Only if youre sure.”   
“We are. We're fine here.” Emma said  
“Ok honey. Please call us if there is any news”  
“We will. Promise.”  
Her parents gave their hugs and walked out the door. Emma took a deep breath and sagged against Killian on the bench they were sitting on.  
As the night wore on, Killian and Emma realized how tired they were. Emma soon fell asleep while laying on the bench with her head laying in Killian's lap. Killian was combing his fingers through his wife's hair until he too fell asleep with his head falling back against the wall. They had only been asleep for what felt like 5 minutes but in reality was 7 hours later, when Killian felt a tap on his shoulder. He started awake and looked into the face of Hope's nurse.   
“Mr. Jones.” The nurse whispered “I wanted to let you know that your daughter is out of surgery.”  
“She is?” he said sitting up quickly, startling Emma awake in the process.  
“She's what?”  
“Shes out of surgery.” The nurse said again. “They found the source of the swelling and were able to fix it. They're hoping that once the anesthesia wears off, she'll slowly start waking up.”  
“That's amazing!” Killian said. When can we see her?”  
“A few hours yet. We waited about an hour to tell you because we wanted to make sure she stayed stable, Which she is but she still needs a few more hours of recovery.”  
“Oh ok. Can we wait in her room or do we need to stay out here?” Emma asked.  
“You can wait in her room. We'll come let you know when they're bringing her back”  
“Thank you so much.”   
The nurse left and Emma pulled out her phone and called her parents.  
“Hello?” came david's groggy voice.  
“Dad? hi. She's out of surgery. They said she might even wake up.”  
“Really? Mary Margaret. Wake up. Emma just said that she's out of surgery” Emma could hear her mother's excited voice on the other end of the phone causing her to smile just a little bit. They weren't out of the woods just yet. Things could change in the coming hours. So far though, Emma was choosing to believe the good news that was just given to her.  
“Yeah the nurse said that she still has a few more hours of recovery so you guys don't need to rush down here right away, but she's out of surgery and they figured out where the swelling was coming from and they fixed it.”  
“Emma that's amazing. We'll be down there in a few hours. Just let us know when they move her.”  
“One of us will for sure call you. Love you guys”  
“We love you too honey. And your mother sends hugs to you ans killian.”  
“Right back at ya.” She hung up the phone and for the first time in the 12 hours that they had been here, she smiled hopefully at her husband. Sher knew things could change but they were both choosing to have hope that she would pull through this. Hope was, after all, the main theme throughout her family. That's why they decided to name their daughter Hope.   
“Let's get going to her room love.”  
“Yeah.”

They were in the room for three hours before the nurse came to tell them that they were bringing Hope in.   
“Again, I need to warn you of her appearance. She's not as pale as she was but she's still pretty light. We also had to shave all her hair.” Emma's smile faltered a little bit but she was just happy that they were going to be close to their daughter.  
A team of nurses rolled the bed into the room. Hope still looked way too small of the hospital bed but she looked a lot better than she did the last time they had seen her. As soon as bed was positioned the nurses left and Killian and Emma took their positions on either side of Hopes bed. Each of them took and hand and held it. For Emma, it was one of the most bittersweet moments of her life. Here she was holding her daughters hand, and that was great, but her daughter wasn't able to respond t any of the things Emma said or did. She just laid there motionless. She hoped that in a short amount of time, her only child would open her beautiful, big, blue eyes. Hope's eyes were the same eyes that were staring at her from across the bed. Eyes that were filled with hope and love.   
The Jones' didn't have to wait that long before, as predicted, Hope started to shift. Little by little the little girl started waking up. It started with a small twich of the fingers holding Killian's hand. He had been asleep with his hand still holding hers and his head resting on her arm, when he felt the slight movement under him. His head shot up, once again, startling Emma awake.   
“What?” Emma asked  
“She moved.”  
“What?” she asked again  
“Emma, her fingers moved. I think she was trying to squeeze my hand” He said excitedly. They both waited with baited breath to see if it happened again, and sure enough, a few minutes later, Hope's little foot moved, alerting both of her parents this time. They stared at each other for a moment before Killian hurriedly to get the doctor. A short time later, the doctor cam bustling into the room  
“So. Our little patient is waking up huh?”  
“It would appear so.” Emma said with a smile.  
“Ok so now would be the time to tell you all the things that might happen when she wakes up.” Emma looks at the doctor worriedly, while Killian was stone faced. “She might have some slight memory issues in the future. It shouldn't be a huge problem later on in life but she did hit her head pretty hard. In the next few weeks or months however, she might remember you both but I can't guarentee that she will remember everyone in your lives immediately. Don't worry though. If that does happen just jog her memory a little bit and makes sure she stays in contact with the people closest to you. Little Hope will have to come in for weekly doctors visits so that she can get the wound looked at and in a few weeks she'll get the stitches taken out.” the doctor smiled at the parents and asked if there was any questions.  
“How long will it take her to wake up fully?” Killian asked.  
“Well that depends entirely on her. It could be a few minutes of it could be a few days. Talk to her and engage with her. People tend to wake up faster if they know there's someone here waiting for them and I know that you are eager to see your daughter.”  
“That we are. Thank you so much doctor.”  
“My pleasure. Someone will be in shortly to check vitals and such. I'll be back in a few hours with some papers for you both to sign.” with the parting words, the doctor left them alone with Hope. Emma leaned down to place a kiss on her daughters forehead.  
“Hope honey. It's mommy. Can you hear me? I just wanted to let you know that we are here, waiting for you, whenever you decide to come back. I hope it's sooner, rather than later, but i'll leave that up to you honey bun. You let us know when you're ready. We love you so much baby and we can't wait to see your smile.” Emma leaned up and motioned for Killian to say something  
“Hi little love. It's been really lonley without you. Grandma and grandpa are going to be here in a little bit. They called while you were still in recovery. They're bringing your uncle with. He's really worried about you too. I love you.” Things had gotten a little bit brighter in the last few hours. They were both so full of hope from all of the good news they were getting. It got even better when Hope slowly started to open her eyes. Neither Killian or Emma saw this but when their daughter croaked out a tiny “Mommy? Daddy?” they were overcome with so much emotion. They had their little girl back. She was ok.  
“Hope! My baby! I'm so happy you're awake.” Emma said, trying (and failing) to hold back her tears. She gently brought Hope into her arms for a hug, being ever mindful of the wound on her head.  
“Hi honey. You gave us quite the scare.” Killian said, joining in on the hug.  
“Why?” Hope asked, clearly confused.  
“You fell off your bike and got hurt pretty badly my love.”  
“Oh.” She said looking down.   
“It's ok sweetheart. You're all better now.”  
“Mommy?”  
“Yes?”  
“Why don't I feel my hair?” Ever since Hope was a toddler, she had loved her blonde curls. She said that they made her feel more like mommy.   
“I'm so sorry baby but they had to cut your hair so that they could fix your owie”  
“I don't have any more hair?”  
“afraid not little love. But alas, fear not, for all of it will grow back. In a few months you won't even remember not having any hair. Also, you will still be just as beautiful as you always have been.”  
“you promise?”  
“of course I do. I would never lie to you sweetheart.”  
“I know daddy.”   
Mary Margaret and David came in a short time later. Emma had warned them beforehand that she might not remember who they were, but as soon as they walked in the room Hope was trying to get out of the bed to hug them. Hugs were exchanged between the five of them and the room was filled with so much laughter and love. Both Killian and Emma couldn't help but thanking modern science for saving the life of their precious daughter.   
About a week later, the Jones' were allowed to return to their home. Hope stopped at the tree and shuddered.   
“It's ok honey. We'll worry about getting you back on the bike in a few months. For right now though, you need to go in the house and wash up for dinner. Daddy is making something special for you.”  
“What is it?!” the excited six year old asked.  
“You'll have to go wash up and then you'll find out.” Emma teased. Hope hurried into the house and did exactly what her mother asked. All was well once again. All the three of them could say about the situation was that they were never going on a bike ride without helmets again

 

FIN


End file.
